9 October - New Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index Released in Bali

Wednesday, 10 October 2018 09:04

Today, DFI and Oxfam launched the new Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index (CRI) at the Annual Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank held in Bali, Indonesia. It was pre-launched at an Asia-focused event in Jakarta on 8th October.

Based on extensive data research and collection from DFI and input from Oxfam offices, the Index ranks 157 countries on their policies on social spending, tax, and labour rights - three areas critical to reducing inequality. This new edition boasts new sub-indicators focusing on the extent countries enable tax evasion, and on sexual

harassment and rape.

The main finding of this year’s CRI is that more governments are taking measures to fight inequality.

The CRI found a clear divergence between governments such as the Republic of Korea, Indonesia, and Georgia that are taking positive steps to reduce the gap between rich and poor, and governments that are making it worse. However, all countries, even those at the top, could be doing much more.

We believe inequality is far from inevitable. It is a policy choice and governments have considerable powers to reduce the gap between the rich and poor in their countries. DFI and Oxfam developed this index to measure and monitor government policy commitments to reducing inequality, but also to offer a robust, evidence-based alternative to other existing income and wealth measuring systems which are sorely lacking in data coverage and quality.